NaNoWriMo Winner

Not that it means anything substantive (just check out Sean's hatefest) but I am an official 2007 National Novel Writing Month "Winner":

I hit the 50,000 word mark this evening, Sunday the 25th; meaning I averaged about 2,000 words a day. Even better, my story isn't finished. It looks like it'll weigh in at about 80,000 words when it's done, which is a much better length for modern commercial fiction. Now, of course, it's even more incumbent upon me to finish it, even though it's going to take more than 30 days.

Don't go looking for "The Phlebotomist" in bookstores any time soon, though. First of all, I have to:

1. Finish it.
2. Let it sit.
3. Edit, revise, re-write and polish it.
4. Proofread it.

Then and only then will I be ready to:

1. Research agents.
2. Compose a query letter.
3. Write a synopsis.
4. Submit queries.
5. Wait.

where of course #5 is the most time consuming. The best possible course of events then goes like this:

1. Agent(s) ask to see a partial.
2. Agent(s) ask to see the full manuscript.
3. Agent offers representation.
4. Agent sells book to publisher.

Then, of course, it's only another year or two before the thing makes it through the glacial process that is publishing. And by that point, it's better than even odds that somewhere along the way, the title will have been changed.

So as I said, don't hold your breath to read it. Then again: I am a winner.